Kongō Banchō
Shogakukan | publisher_en = | publisher_other = | demographic = Shōnen | magazine = Shōnen Sunday | magazine_en = | magazine_other = | published = | first = 2007 | last = 2010 | volumes = 12 | volume_list = }} is a shōnen manga by Nakaba Suzuki. The manga began its serialization in Shōnen Sunday from 2007 vol. 47 and has recently finish its serialization. Plot Akira Kongou is looking to take down the "23 district project" which involves "banchou" from 23 districts of Tokyo fighting for the right to control Japan. Without meaning to, he becomes a participant with the alias Kongou Banchou and must take down other banchou while searching for the leaders of the project. Characters Toyko Chiyoda District Akira Kongō The main character he is a very large man with an even larger heart. He remains calm no matter what and only loses his cool when his friends are hurt, when he speaks most people can't help but feel overwhelmed by him and see the error of their ways, when he yells the force can push back an unknown amount people. He saved Hinako from Kiriu Touya and became the bancho of the Chiyoda district. He is the kind of person that helps the little guy in society, he doesn't care about leading groups, being powerful, or being rich besides his unknown reason to destroy the District Plan he seems happy just enjoying the simple things of life. He goes to Raimei Senior High School. He follows what he calls simple logic (someone hurts your friend you hurt them back), when someone does an evil or cruel act in front of him he says "that wasn't smart". Besides his fighting knowledge and schoolwork Akira isn't very knowledgeable of technology as he almost crushed a flip-open cellphone thinking that you just had to press a button because of the owners comment, he even asks what was e-mail. He also has great difficulty making his favorite food, pudding, but this is due to his monster like strength and massive build making delicate work incredibly hard for him. Besides taking down other Banchos Akira also helps those in his district with they problems. :Attacks: Akira fights using his inhuman strength and his ability to make his body harder then lead adding more power to his blows. He has enough strength to carry a full sized car with only one arm. *Double Hammer: After hardening his fists Akira thrusts both of them towards the enemy *Meteo Drive: Beginning with a knee to the face Akira grabs the enemy by his waist as he bends forward, then frontflips over him, pulling him into the air and driving his head into the ground *Face Crush: A simple headbutt *Wild Trailer: Hardening his entire body, Akira rushes forward delivering a clothesline *Violent Mode: Akira's entire body increases in size and becomes a dark iron color. His fighting power is pushed to its limits thereby increasing the power of all of his other attacks. In this form Akira fights purely on instinct, following no refined pattern. He created this technique so he could defeat his brother. Hinako and Tsukimi Sakura Sisters who are Akira's friends, Hinako is the older of the two she keeps an unusual memo picture collection on her phone to show her sister when she picks her up from kindergarten, she is in the same class as Akira. When Akira first told her about the District Plan she laughed and reported to a cop, said cop was in on the plan and captured her after which Akira beat Kiriu Touya who was holding her. Tsukimi is the kid sister she likes being with Hinako and Akira who she calls "big brother". Akira treats her like a father would his daughter. Akira took down a whole yakuza group just to get one of them to apologize for ripping Tsukimi's drawing Oyanana Hikaru He is the son of the school's chairman. Because of his father's status Hikaru got away with everything from eating during class to openly undressing girls and still have the entry to the best universities. He gets everyone to do what he wants by promising them recommendations. He tried to get Akira to be his bodyguard and after Akira refused and embarrassed him he tried to get the Takeshi to beat up Akira. After all failed and Akira giving him advice about not depending on others power he has taking a turn for the better. Ouda Takeshi The school's boxing champ and apparently the only member of the boxing club. His left straight punch is said to have 900 kg of power, when Akira took his punch without any defence, Takeshi saw the kind of person Akira was and admitted defeat. Karaburi Mitsunobu He doesn't go to Akira's school he seems slightly crazy he wears and umpiers mask and wields a steel bat with spikes hidden in the tip. He was sent to get rid of Akira after Hinako was captured, he said Akira couldn't use his hands or feet in his Home-run game (pretty much telling Akira to stand still and let him hit the tar out of him), Akira responded be doing just one knock out head-butt. Kiriu Touya The Chiyoda District Bancho also known as the Iai Bancho, he is what some would call a bishōnen and he is seems very cultured and calm. He is defeated by Akira and since it was taped Akira has taken Touya's place as the district's banchou. He later returned with a group of other banchos (all of who were defeated by Akira) to assist Akira against the Five Dark Vows, his reason is that all those in the world are just talk where as Akira could back up his. During which he and the others were enrolled in Akira's class, here he shows that he can't take girls dressing in short skirts (his school required girls to wear pants) he is also very pure-hearted and follows a samurai code of honor. This is also his biggest weakness since he can't take scantily clad women, seeing this causes him to have large nosebleeds. Touya fully believes that Akira has what it takes to be the winner of the District Project and is willing to die to help Akira succeed. During his battle against the Five Dark Vows, he cuts across his eyes to prevent being distracted, temporarily blinding himself, but later regains his sight. :Touya uses the Kiriu School of Drawing Sword Arts (sword drawing techniques), Touya recites haiku's after winning a battle. *Flicker: A slash so quick it isn't visibly by normal eyes Touya typically aims for the chest when he uses this. *Bloom: Like Flicker except instead of one slash it is a multitude slashes. Sumida District Master Raionji The bancho of the Sumida District. He is known as the Nenbutsu (Buddhist Prayer) Banchou. He acts like buddha and had brainwashed all the students in Kouji Senior High to be his followers of his cult. He also seems greedy and partly narcissistic since he had his followers buy many key chains, charms, etc. with his image on it. He seems to have the power to blast anyone and move while sitting with some kind of psychic force but it is shown to be a trick when Akira sees Raionji use it underwater. His power is his abnormally large sized diaphragm that he keeps covered with his coat. Akira defeats him, he loses his followers (who believe Akira to be the reincarnation of Acala) and then has to pay for all the merchandise with his face on it. He later returns with a group of bancho (all defeated by Akira) to assist him against the Five Dark Vows his reason is since Akira took on his 1000 followers to avenge just one friend, he now truly believes in Buddha and he fully believes that Akira is the reincarnation ofAcala. He is now enrolled in Akira's school where he acts like a real priest saying that the joining of the former banchos was an act of Buddha, but there are times when his former greedy self appears trying to sell his merchandise. He is shown to be more cowardly in battles but will fight nonetheless. He gets very annoyed when people call him bald. He victory phase is "The afterlife is always open for business." :He fights using his Katsu (Punishment) power, which is really the air he exhales. *Katsu: Raionji exhales air while yelling Katsu making it seem like divine punishment when it is really compressed air being exhaled out of his mouth. The major weak-point is simply slapping him to turn his head diverts the attack to the sides, or just by covering his mouth renders the move useless. *Lotus Pose: Sea of Clouds: Rajonji adopts a lotus sitting position and by using just a small exhale he moves backwards without getting up. *Lotus Pose: Heaven Embrace: Just his Sea of Clouds Raionji uses the same move but exhaling at the floor to make him "float" in the air. *Divine Punishment: Prayer Bead Attack: Raionji's desperation move by exhaling while holding his prayer beads in front of him he launches them like mini cannon balls. Seitaka and Kongara Raionji's two underlings Seitaka is a wall-sized man and Kongara is extremely flexible and has a steel hard garb. Both of them fight be Kangara bending himself into a ball and Seitaka throwing him. Both are defeated by just one of Akira's punches. When Raionji is defeated they give him the bill for all his merchandises. Minato District Shirayukinomiya Kobushi She is the Gouriki (Herculean Strength) Banchou. She appears to be a sweet young tomboyish looking girl and attends St. Veronica Academy she comes from a very rich family, despite her petit size she can eat an entire Chanko Nabe by herself this is due to her body's Hyperion Constitution (a rare medical condition that makes her muscle a dozen times denser, more flexible and her organs can keep up with it, with the drawback being a super increased metabolism). She fancies herself a warrior of justice and went around destroying areas of her district that she considered evil or that were used be those who are evil (she destroyed and entire street since a biker gang used it ferquently which was disrupting the piece). She tried to destroy a chemical plant since it was polluting the air without thinking about the hazardous chemicals she could release onto the surrounding area. Akira stopped her an also during they fight showed her that she was acting without any forethought, when defeated she says she's not fit to be a banchou Akira disagreed and called her a splendid banchou since she was willing to risk her life for her underline. She later returns part of the group of banchos that support Akira. :She wields two giant iron bulbs (which are double her size) as her weapons of choice, she nicknamed them Salt Chanko and Miso Chanko. They are destroyed by a member of the Dark Student Council, but she replaces them with an even larger spiked metal mace. *Divine Fist: she trusts both of her bulbs towards her enemy. *Full Impact: She brings one of bulbs down on her enemy in an overhead smash attack crushing them with its weight. :*Chase Pendulum: Following her Full Impact she brings the second bulb down on to the first one doubling the weight on her enemy. Gokurou The family butler and Kobushi's private cook who supports her completely. He is a very fast cook able to make a Chanko Nabe in seconds and also he is protective of Kobushi as a father would be. He also seems to have extreme combat ability, able to defeat several of Machine Banchou's robot underlings easily, something that interests Akira. Onji Kairiki He is Kobushi's underling and went to request that Akira stop her from destroying more areas in they district. He is twice as big as Akira but nowhere near as strong. He admires Kobushi to the point of someone confusing it for love. Kita District Harito Takaradzuka He is the Shirobara (White Rose) Banchou. He is a bishōnen and is narcissistic he wants to fill the world with things he deems beautiful. When he first meet Akira he had his underlings spread white rose petals all over the street while he requested a fair duel with Akira (he was tricked into believing that Akira was gravely wounded so he would have had an advantage). Akira defeated him with one normal punch and told him not to litter the streets. Later back at his base his underlings betrayed him because they were tricked by the Hikyou Bancho, the same man who told him the lie about Akira's wound. He was forced to withdraw when his elderly parents were threatened. He later returned, interrupting the fight Yuu and Akira where he used one of Yuu's little brothers as a shield. There he revealed Yuu's past and tried to get them to kill each other. This backfires with both of them attacking him. :His weapons are a rapier and white roses he uses like darts. *Rose Blizzard: Harito sends thousands of roses to stab his enemy. *Rose Emblem: Using his sword Harito rapidly cuts his enemies chest leaving a rose shaped cut. Itabashi District Yuu Akayama He is the Hikyou (Cowardly) Bancho. His catch phase is "lets fight in a fair, cowardly way" He will use anything to win (lies, sneak attacks, covert weapons, kidnapping, etc.) he attacks Akira with a seris of traps. Using a cell phone shaped pistol on a train to injury his leg, blowing up and office to temporally blinding him, tricking a semi-blind Akira to jump into traffic using a ball (lying to Akira saying it was a grenade) breaking his right arm, kidnapping Tsukimi so that when he finally fights Akira has to hold still. He was defeated when he tried to use a [[wrecking ball on Akira and was sent back at him. Akira was ready to deliver the final blow when Yuu's underling (Kouta one of his little brother) intervened stopping Akira, Harito appears and uses Kouta as shield telling Yuu to stab Akira. Yuu does so then fake stabs himself trying to save Kouta in the end Akira saved both of them since the knife had no effect on him. His reason for helping Akira is so that Akira will be indebted to help him when needed and he plans to back-stab Akira when he wins control over all the districts (the real reasons is most likely that he is thankful to Akira who worried about his (Yuu's) family even if he tried to kill him). He grew up in an orphanage where he has 13 little brothers and sisters (no blood relation) to support the orphanage (after the owners lost they money to gambling debts) he would do any dirty job for money (blackmail, fraud, stealing, etc.) He wears a burglar mask and cap when he fights so others don't know what he looks like, so they don't set traps for him and also so his family won't be put in danger, he states "if it's for the sake of my precious brothers and sisters I'll be as cowardly as it takes". :He uses his traps to take care of his enemies, when he fights someone in battle he use a torture whip (made of wires with hidden titanium spike) *Dirty Execution: After wrapping his enemy he pulls hard causing the whip to slice his enemies entire body *Ayatori: Connecting threads of synthetic fiber between each of his fingers to sever opponents ligaments. Kouta Yuu's little brother, he tried to attack Aikra to save his big brother. He is one of 13 little brothers and sisters (not by blood) he knows of Yuu's misdeeds but is still proud of him for what he does to protect and provide for his family. Kantuo District Kodama Haruka She is the Sasori (Scorpion) Banchou. She is the former 2nd generation leader of the all-female motocycle gang 'Red Scorpio'. The first generation leader, who took her in as a mentor, was Kongou Takeshi's (Akira'a Brother) wife and mother to Kongou Rai (Takeshi's son and Akira's nephew). Ever since her death, Sasori Banchou has taken in Rai as some sort of adoptive son for her and has sworn to get revenge on Kongou Takeshi. Due to the similarity between Akira and Takeshi, she mistakes the former for the latter and mercilessly goes after him. The way she puts it, a woman's grudge is worse than the depths of hell and her lethal fighting style and strength seem to support that a big deal. During her fight with Akira she was shown that she was attacking the wrong guy and now she and Akira agreed to share information in order to find Takeshi. Her ponytail curves upward and has a tip making it look like a scorpion's tail. She returns to help fight against Gaugau Banchou. She appears to have a crush on Yuu Akayama, whom she doesn't know is Hikyou Banchou. :She normally fights use rough brawling attacks from her gang days. *Crazy Machinegun: a barrage of really fast and powerful punches *Rising Hell - a strong headbutt :When she gets serious she uses her more deadly Scorpion Killing Technique which is a more graceful defensive and evasive style of fighting and uses acupressure attacks to paralyze the enemy. *Entwining Evil: God Piercer: Using her fingertips and knowledge of pressure points she can block the body's circulation causing limbs to stop moving and organs to work at the lowest capacity. Kongou Rai Takeshi's son who looks like a mini version of him. He is friends with Tsukimi and acts like Akira. He uses Takeshi's phase "Don't sweat the small stuff". Rai can also use the Double Hammer but his is far weaker than Akira's since he is still a kindergardener. The Five Dark Vows Arakawa District Yoruko and Asako The both of them are the Doukke (Clown) Bancho. The two sisters were raised as heirs to the best magician known to the world. Before they could talk they were trained to perform magic tricks and at the age of 3 they had already mastered more than one hundred. Doukke Banchou's greatest skill is diversion. They are such a great trickster that few people even notice they are dealing with two people in the disguise of one. Doukke Banchou also is skilled in the use of bladed weapons of all sorts and have the trained bodies of a martial artist or acrobat. They are pretty opportunistic, however not to the point that they would use any means available. They just like to perform magic tricks and fool around with people, not even hesitating to use their own attractive features to confuse the enemy. :They both fight using magic tricks *Betrayal Pain - a trick performed with a fake knife. While drawing attention of the opponent by stabbing a different person, a friend, or themselves for no apparent reason, a small circular blade is huled toward the enemy from a blind spot and injures it to their surprise. *Living Doll - having prepared the battlefield in advance, Doukke Banchou uses strings attached to puppets and makes them move. Of course this is also a diversion, however a cleverly played one. Attracting the attention towards the dolls, a stupid enemy proceeds to attack their way through them to get to the puppeteer *Hide and Seek - while seemingly harmless, this is Doukke Banchou's ultimate move. Throwing a bunch of plush toys at the opponents it seems simply to distract the enemy to strike from a blind spot. The true reason behind this diversion is the set-up for something greater. Yoruko and Asako are able to perfectly synchronise, copying each others movements with not a millimeter's deviatation, they can even perfectly synchronize their heartbeats and breathing, basically making one of the sisters undetectable and allowing her to strike at some crucial point right into an opening. Taitou District Nenchaku Banchou The Nenchaku (Adhesion) Banchou. He is a freak of nature having the body of a child hidden under thick layers of a slimy, sticky mucus that is covering every little bit of him, he is still far from normal even if he gets rid of that slimy shell. His tongue is extremely long and super sticky while being sharp enough to cut like a knife. :He use his body to fight. *Never Bind - spraying out his sticky mucus all over the place, a chemical reaction within the substance and Nenchaku Banchou's sweat causes the mucus to quickly harden. The more the opponent coated in it moves, the more difficult it becomes to move freely. This can even go so far that breathing becomes impossible. *Tallow Fossil - having free control over his sebum consistency, Nenchacku Banchou can cover his opponents in an extremely quickly hardening coat of mucus that becomes as hard as amber. External links * Kongō Banchō at Websunday.net Category:Shōnen manga Category:Action anime and manga Category:Manga of 2007 ja:金剛番長